With my household possessions in storage for over nine months, I’m finally finding the time to unpack the items that were not immediately needed. I’m uncovering a treasure trove of memories. No judgment on my delay, as it took time to unpack each box, then stow the wrapping and boxes.
It also took time to figure out where to put everything, since I have more possessions than I had when I first shipped everything to storage last August. We moved back to Arizona, but weren’t ready to receive everything yet. We decided to live with a minimum of items and purchase: one table for eating on, one table to serve as a coffee table, two chairs, one sofa, one foam bed, a few lamps, and a few kitchen gadgets.
We learned about ourselves and our needs. With closet shelves and the boxed clothing that had made the trip back from Delaware, we had the makings of open-air dressers. We had enough pots and pans to cook on our stove, but no microwave, no toaster, no air fryer.
Decision time: Buy an all-in-one toaster, oven, air fryer, broiler, which was on sale (a good brand with positive reviews) at Costco for a great price, or keep using the stove? To save time and keep from roasting as we turned on the oven─with warm weather approaching─we made the all-in-one choice. Also, my friend had a microwave she offered to give us. We were in business for cooking!
Finally ready, so we thought, we had our stored possessions delivered. We forgot how much time unpacking takes. I imagine we had some idealized memory of people unpacking each box right away and having everything ship-shape within a day.
No such luck! Also, some of our china cupboards were missing the bolts necessary to put the legs on. We had to wait a week for those to be delivered.
We eagerly moved our foam bed to the guest room on the second day, and assembled our much-awaited Sleep Number bed. (Forgive my sounding like a paid commercial. I love my Sleep Number bed. It is a glorious way to sleep! After hurting each morning when I woke up on my too-hard temporary bed, Sleep Number was -aaaahhh-oh, so good!) I almost forgot how good it felt to be at “30” to sleep. My mood improved. Sadly, my neck and other parts were still hurting from the previous bed.
Then, the rest was to come! I came upon a silver salt and pepper shaker set my grandmother gave me many years ago. She said she’d gift me with the set if I promised to polish it. Being in storage for nine-plus months didn’t make that possible. The salt shaker looked black! I felt guilty. The pepper shaker was still shiny as I’d wrapped it in plastic wrap. I don’t know why the salt attracted the moisture to blacken the silver, but after about 10 rounds of polishing with silver polish, it finally looks okay. Sorry, Grandma!
A plaque for an award I won years ago for my journalistic writing fell out of the wrapping and landed on the floor. No, it didn’t break. I remember that when I received my award, which was a surprise, I almost didn’t stand up to claim it. It shocked me! My publisher and I were chatting and the third place, second place, then the MC announced the winner, but my brain didn’t realize it was me! We all laughed. I appreciate the award because it proved that all the many hours I wrote for the small family newspaper had made a difference to people. A great memory.
And one of my favorite memories is thanks to Horton Hatches the Egg. I used to read “Horton” to my young son and I read it using different voices. Horton sounded like me, with a stuffed nose. I used funny accents for the rest of the characters. My son enjoyed reading it with me and he started using different voices, too. When I volunteered to read “Horton” at libraries and school classrooms, I enjoyed it immensely because the kids really enjoyed it, too! When my son was at college and came home for a holiday break, he came with me. This time, he read Horton (with a funny voice) and the kids loved it! Such a fun, happy memory!
Why do I bring up these random memories?
We’re all making memories! As you read my books, I hope they conjure up happy memories for you or remind you of times of your own that were loving and passionate. My characters are all figments of my imagination! So, let your mind conjure up times you’d like to be inspired by and happiness from your past.
In that light, I’ll tell you about the prequel that we’re in the last phase of completing- final editing and formatting. When I thought about who I’d like to write about next, after A Vision of Home, I knew I wanted to write more about John, Louisa’s dad. Writing about John as a college student meeting Shannon, Louisa’s mom, for the first time made me excited every time I sat down to write. John has a wry sense of humor that he shows in his interactions with other characters. It was fun to see where his humor came from as a younger person. Shannon is an artist, and I wanted everyone to learn more about her. Unfortunately, if you’ve read Books 1-3, SPOILER!!- you know that Shannon was – I can’t say it! Please read the books. What I did with Shannon’s character makes me sad. I was glad to make her real and fully alive in the prequel.
If you’d like to be an ARC–Advanced Reader Copy Team member: Please let me know and I’ll send you the preformatted version. You’ll have the book before almost anyone! And, for your help-just writing 2-4 sentences for me sharing what you enjoyed, and you thought was memorable in Love at First Sight, I will thank you by including your comments in the book that is published! (If you’d rather, I can just thank you by first name only). Please let me know by June 1st, so I can include you in the reviews!
Write to me: shelley@ShelleySommers.com
Happy Memories Everyone!
Warmest regards,
Shelley Sommers
Romance Author
shelley@ShelleySommers.com
www.ShelleySommers.com